Mobile phones and other user devices rely on a user identity card to identify the phone or device for communication on a communication network. The user identity card (UIC) can be a Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card used in a GSM network, a Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) used in a UMTS network, a Removable User Identity Module (R-UIM) used in a CDMA network, or the like. The UIC is an integrated circuit that securely stores a unique identifier for identifying a subscriber on a mobile network. When the UIC is installed in a mobile phone or other device requiring access to the mobile network, the UIC is communicatively coupled to a processor of the mobile device. The processor retrieves the unique identifier from the UIC in order to uniquely identify the device on the network.
For example, a SIM card stores a unique International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) identifier. The IMSI is sent to the network by a device in which the SIM card is installed to identify the device, and to enable the network to retrieve subscriber information associated with the IMSI from a home location register (HLR) or visitor location register (VLR) of the network. The UIC is most often removably inserted into a device. However, some UICs are permanently soldered into the device.
UICs such as SIM cards come in three standardized form factors, each of the form factors including a semiconductor substrate having electronic components and electrical contacts formed on a surface of the substrate. The standard SIM card includes a plastic or other rigid medium onto which the semiconductor substrate is mounted. The micro-SIM card is similar to the standard SIM card but has a smaller sized rigid plastic medium onto which with the semiconductor substrate is mounted. In both cases, the rigid plastic medium is large enough to allow a user to easily manipulate the SIM card and to enable the user to slide the SIM card into a slot in a user device. The rigid plastic medium is shaped such that it properly aligns the SIM card within the slot in the device. The rigid plastic medium provides a resilient platform onto which the semiconductor substrate is mounted, and helps protect the substrate, electronic components, and electrical contacts from impacts and damage. Both the standard and micro SIM cards are designed to be readily insertable into and removable from user devices, to enable a user to use the same SIM card in different user devices. The size of the rigid plastic medium, however, imposes a limit on the miniaturization of the standard and micro SIM cards, of the slots they are inserted into, and of the devices they are installed in.
The third standardized SIM card form factor is the soldered SIM card, which includes a semiconductor substrate and electronics as in the standard and micro SIM cards, but does not include the rigid plastic medium. The soldered SIM card is smaller in size than both the standard and micro SIM cards. However, because the soldered SIM card is permanently soldered into a user device, it is not removable from the user device or transferable to a different user device.
UICs (such as SIM cards or the like) currently in use either include bulky plastic mediums and connectors, placing a limit on user device size reduction, or are soldered into user devices, preventing users from exchanging UICs between user devices. As a result, a compact UIC form factor and UIC connector are needed to reduce the size of UICs and UIC connectors while maintaining UICs' removability.